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I.Šimonytė presented the actions of the Government and the institutions in response to the hybrid threats in the Seimas.
Support promised to municipalities
“The problem is not the 1,700 people who crossed the border illegally, the problem is the dynamics, the motivation. Most of the 1,700 people crossed after a plane flying the Athens-Vilnius flight forcibly landed in Minsk.
In June alone, several times more people crossed the border than since the beginning of the year. And in July, twice as many people crossed the border as in the whole of June, ”said I. Šimonytė.
“I daresay that the only reason Lithuania appears in the way of this significantly greater flow is the intention of the Belarusian regime to intimidate and exert pressure,” the prime minister added.
According to her, in the context of exercise Zapad, these actions must be taken with special seriousness and the exercise must be seen as a threat to national security.
According to the Prime Minister, the Government has already taken appropriate measures: border protection is already being reinforced with the help of soldiers, shooters and public security officers.
The construction of a concert hall has also begun and the government has allocated 5 million from the state reserve. euros.
I.Šimonytė herself will depart for Greece on Wednesday, where she will speak about the expert support of Greek officials. Foreign Minister G. Landsbergis will also depart for Ankara and Baghdad on Tuesday.
“We are sending a message to our partners that Lithuania will not be the weak link in the path of illegal migrant migration,” explained I. Šimonytė.
The Prime Minister thanked the municipalities, which responded to the request for help to receive the migrants and promised support.
“Although municipalities sometimes seem to use this transport on their own, this is not the case. Most of the illegal immigrants are housed in premises run by state institutions, and we intend to continue on this path.
We understand that after the pandemic, the local government faces challenges, so the government is ready to help and contribute as much as it needs, ”explained the Prime Minister.
He also responded to criticism that Lithuania admits immigrants too easily.
“Man is not a ball that can be kicked across borders. In the past, in the same way, migrants were returned to the Belarusian authorities under a certain algorithm, which is not the case today, as it is a conscious choice of regimen.
“Lukashenko has directly threatened him, so it is not surprising that the Belarusian border services are even trying to destroy traces on the dividing strip,” said I. Šimonytė.
According to the Prime Minister, a large number of people have already found asylum in Lithuania.
“Lithuania is not a country that does not understand the suffering of people fleeing persecution; more than a hundred journalists, civil society activists and ordinary people have found refuge in Lithuania, and regimes trying to cope with the dissent have stretched their nails. ” I. Šimonytė affirmed.
Lithuania informed Poland about the reinforced protection of the internal border
The Prime Minister explained that Lithuania had informed Poland that due to the influx of illegal immigrants from Belarus, it had also strengthened the protection of the border with Poland.
“We talked more about the fact that Lithuania needed to strengthen the protection of the internal border. This is important for the bilateral movement between Lithuania and Poland,” I. Šimonytė told reporters about his conversation with the head of the Polish government.
“We have such an agreement with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that if any situation arises, we will kindly inform each other in advance so that the neighbors just know,” he said.
According to the head of the Lithuanian government, the target of foreigners coming to Lithuania from Belarus is Western Europe, so they are trying to leave Lithuania and go through Poland.
“We know that there are also organized crime groups that are in charge of that, come here, try to get people out.
In order not to create a corridor here, and finally, if Polish officials then stopped those people at the border, then they would return them to us as if they had crossed the EU border here; there have already been such precedents, we just agreed. that this is objectively the case, which requires such actions and we take them, ”said I. Šimonytė.
Meets for an extraordinary session
During the one-day session, MPs plan to adopt amendments that would reduce the asylum application procedures to ten days.
The amendments proposed by the government would also restrict the free movement of migrants crossing the border illegally on the territory of Lithuania, they would restrict their other rights when an emergency situation is declared in the country due to the influx of migrants.
The government is calling for amendments to the legal status of foreigners to be considered with special urgency, so it is scheduled to present the draft amendments to the law on Tuesday and vote on their adoption later.
In total, Lithuanian officials detained 1,676 migrants at the border with Belarus this year, 20 times more than last year. Many of them are from African countries and the Middle East.
Minsk claims that migrants are no longer detained on Belarusian territory due to EU sanctions.
Due to the sharp increase in the flow of migrants, the government has declared a state of emergency.
